Touching your body, reaching your spirit.

Are you like a frog in hot water? Put a frog in a pan of boiling water and he’ll have the sense to jump out. If you put him in a pan of cool water and gradually turn up the heat to boiling, the frog will become accustomed to the heat...until it’s too late.

That’s how stress works on us too; it’s like turning up the heat of the water bit by bit. We become used to it and think it’s the normal way to feel.

Stress is around us all the time and has become part of our lifestyle. We forget how to relax. Our body stays in a state of constant alert, responding by releasing hormones into the bloodstream, making our heart beat faster, our breathing go faster, tensing our muscles, causing us mental, emotional and physical pain.

Heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis are among the medical problems that can be stress-induced due to the output of stress hormones. Stress also affects our immune system, inviting a whole other set of problems including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, not to mention things like the common cold and the flu. Evidence shows that stress also promotes the aging process and poor short-term memory.

Many things in our lives can put us into the hot water of stress: financial pressures, relationship issues, health concerns, job, being on a diet or trying to stop smoking—and I’m sure you can easily name more.

The best strategy for avoiding the stress caused by “hot water” is to learn how to relax. That’s where massage comes in. With massage, your body experiences relaxation, maybe for the first time in a long time. Your body thinks “Oh, there is some other way to feel and, I like it!” After a period of time, your body will even start to remember how to relax, and you’ll start to respond to formerly stressful situations with less tension than you did before.

Other ways to deal with stress include physical activity, talking about it with someone, taking care of yourself like getting enough sleep and eating properly, making time for fun, getting involved in the world and people around you, cry, and creating quiet by reading or listening to restful music and turning off the television.